Suspected Plot to Attack Belgian PM Prevented
Belgium's police have arrested three suspects allegedly involved in planning an assault on the government's prime minister, Bart de Wever.
Prosecutors characterized the reported plan as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the premier and fellow elected representatives.
During searches conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, close to the PM's home, investigators found a suspected homemade bomb and indications that the accused were intending to use a drone.
While the prospective targets of the assault were not officially named by the legal authorities, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot confirmed that de Wever was one of them.
"The news of a premeditated attack targeting Prime Minister Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," the official declared in a message on X on the investigation day.
"This underscores that we are facing a serious extremist danger and that we have to remain vigilant," he concluded.
The three suspects taken into custody on charges of terrorism-related attempted murder and engagement in the operations of a extremist organization all reside in the Antwerp region, according to the federal prosecutors. They were with years of birth in 2001, 2002 and 2007.
As of Thursday evening, one person was let go, while the other suspects were under interrogation and scheduled to appear in court on the following day.
Federal prosecutors stated that the accused were arrested after a court official ordered searches of their residences in the city by police officers assisted by bomb detection canines.
In the course of these raids that they discovered a object which appeared to be an IED, federal prosecutor Ann Fransen stated at a press conference on the day of the events.
Searches also found a container of metal spheres and a additive manufacturing device, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she noted.
Fransen said that there had been 80 extremist probes opened in the country in the current year - more than the full amount of cases in last year.
In April, five individuals were convicted for a scheme last year to strike Belgium's leader while he was serving as Antwerp's mayor.
